As already mentioned, Surtschin was not
established by German settlers; the settlers
arrived in an existing village already
populated by people of another ethnicity.
The settlers received no government land
grants and had to purchase the land
themselves. This is why some of our
farmers owned too little land to support
their families. In addition, it was not only
the farmers, but also the craftsmen who
bought land from the Serbs. It can be
said that virtually every German household
in Surtschin owned some farmland. As a
result, there were many small farms.
If a craftsman had enough work in his trade,
he would lease his parcel of land to the
owner of a small farm. Lease terms
were always on a yearly basis. The
cost of the lease was always paid in advance
regardless of whether the harvest would be
good or bad. The lessee always bore all the
risk. Lease agreements were seldom in
writing, but rather done verbally and with a
handshake. The property taxes were paid to
the government by the landowner.
Another way that agriculture was practised
involved what was represented by the
‘half-share farmer’ (‘Halbscheidbauer’). A
‘half-share farmer’ would take over the
complete operation of the farm to receive
half of the harvest yield. He would
provide all the necessary equipment and half
of the seed. Upon completion of the
harvest, he would deliver one half of the
crop to the landowner. A ‘half-share
farmer’ would endeavour to work the same
fields for many years. This had the
advantage that he could cultivate the land
as if it was his own, with manure from his
livestock, because improvement of the soil
quality was in his own interest and to his
own advantage.

Craftsmen and day laborers had the
opportunity to earn enough grains for the
year by working for barter rather than
wages. These people were called ‘Risaren’.
Prior to the start of the harvest, a farmer
and his workers would move from one parcel
of land to another, to establish agreements
on compensation. Depending on the
condition of the crop, 80 to 120 kg of wheat
were calculated for one ‘Joch’ (about 1.4
acres). If the crop was on the ground,
making the harvest more difficult,
additional compensation would include a
large loaf of bread (2 to 2 1/2 kg), ½ kg
bacon or ham, ½ litre of mulberry schnapps,
and sometimes 2 to 3 litres of milk.
The ‘Risaren’ were usually married couples
and would not have their own horse and
wagon. The farmers would provide these
for the harvesting teams if they were
available. Otherwise, the farmer would
drive the workers out to the fields in the
morning and then pick them up in the
evening. Water and provisions for the
day would have to be taken along every day,
as would be the children. Older
children would help with the work or take
care of the smaller ones. A capable and
experienced husband and wife team would be
able to harvest one ‘Joch’ in a day, and
during the season earn their supply of wheat
for the year. Day workers could also
work for barter and similarly earn their
supply of wheat for the year. During
the corn harvest it was possible to earn
enough feed to fatten two to three pigs. In
one day, a man could earn 50 to 60 kg of
ears of corn, and a woman could earn 40 to
50 kg.

The
Usage of our Agricultural Lands

The main crops grown in Surtschin were wheat
and corn. It can be said that each one
of these crops occupied about one third of
the arable land. The other crops, like
barley, oats, rye, potatoes (for their own
use), oil-producing plants (sunflowers,
rapeseed and soy beans), feed crops like
turnips, alfalfa, red clover and mohar,
occupied another third of the farmland.
There were very few grazing meadows in
Surtschin. These could be leased from
the neighboring villages of Betschmen and
Jakovo. Furthermore, because of the
soil conditions, the quality of hay in these
localities was better than in Surtschin.

Wheat

Wheat was primarily grown in the ‘upper’
fields of Surtschin. In most cases,
the previous crop in these fields was corn.
As soon as the corn was harvested, the
stalks would be plowed under as deeply as
possible. If the previous crop was
turnips, the subsequent wheat yield would be
lower since the turnip harvest occurred
later in the season, and seeding could not
be done until the following spring.

Much
care was taken to make sure that only the
highest quality, mildew-free seed was
planted. Seeds were carefully cleaned,
sorted and dried. In the later years,
seeding was done mainly with machines, but
there was still some done by hand. It
would require from 75 to 100 kg of seed to
plant one ‘Joch’ of wheat. Rows were
planted about 8 cm apart and the seeds
placed 3 cm deep. In our region,
planting was done towards the end of October
until the beginning of November. The
advantage of this timing was that the seeds
could germinate, sprout and reach a height
of 2–4 cm before the frost set in, making
them more resistant to the cold of winter.

In the following spring, as soon as the
ground was dry, the surface would be leveled
and, if necessary, rolled. Once the
plants had time to recover, the hard ground
surface would be broken up with a harrow,
allowing air and moisture to reach the
roots. This would also uproot the
surface weed growth. Harrowing also
had the additional benefit of thinning out
the crop, thereby stimulating the remaining
plants to grow more quickly and healthier.
If old corn stalks would be unearthed in
this process, they would be collected and
used as fuel for fires. The wheat crop would
need no further maintenance until it was
harvested. This would occur at the end
of June. The wheat was harvested by
mowers, combines and sometimes still by
scythe.

Some farmers would sell a portion of the
harvest immediately. Others would wait
until the price of wheat became more
favourable. The wheat destined for
home consumption would be processed in the
Surtschin mill, either immediately or as
required. In the interest of using
only fresh flour, care was taken that not
too much was ground at one time. We
had two types of flour: White flour was used
for baking and cooking and special bread
flour was used for baking bread. Upon
request, cream of wheat (semolina) would
also be produced.

The leftover bran would be added to animal
feed. The chaff would also be used as
feed and the straw for bedding. The variety
of wheat most commonly grown was
“Stahlweizen” which translates as “steel
wheat”, and was also called “Schnarrenweizen”,
or “rattle wheat”, and was described as
“granulated”. The other variety of
wheat grown was “Dreiundsechziger,” or “Dickköpfle,"
described as “non-granular.”

(Translator’s note: Stahlweizen
was most likely the species “Triticum
monoccum,” which has the common name
“Einkorn.” It was widely grown in the
Balkans and the spikelets (granules)
separate easily by threshing of the mature
plant. Dreiundsechziger would have
been the species “Triticum spelta,” which is
commonly called “Spelt.” It was also
grown in the Balkans and although it also
has two spikelets, unlike Einkorn, the
rachilla (extensions of the stem to which
the spikelets are attached) remain attached
to the spikelets after threshing.
Furthermore, the Spelt spikelets contain two
kernels which have wide, square glumes,
thereby making them large in width.
“Dickköpfle” translates as “fat-head.”)

Barley

The soil composition in Surtschin was well
suited for growing barley. However,
very little was grown and it was used
primarily for feed. Most of it was
winter barley and the seeding, cultivation
and harvest was done exactly as it was for
wheat. Barley was always the first
grain to be harvested, followed by wheat and
then oats. It deserves mention that
dried barley was also roasted in an oven,
ground and mixed with milk, to produce “malt
coffee”. This drink would be served
with preference with the Sunday morning
breakfast.

Oats

In Surtschin, oats were grown for personal
consumption only. It was mostly a
spring crop and was used either green or
after harvesting as feed for horses.

Rye

Rye was also called “Kron” in Surtschin and
was grown in very small quantities because
bread was made exclusively with wheat flour.
Each farmer grew only as much rye as he
needed to make rope. The long stalk of
the rye plant was bunched and knotted into a
kind of simple rope. This was used
primarily to tie the sheaves of other crops
such as wheat. After the corn harvest,
if not plowed under in the same field, corn
leaves and stalks might also be lashed
together with rope made from rye. Rope
manufacturing was done early in the morning,
when the stalks were still wet with dew and
thereby less brittle.

Corn

Corn provides an inexpensive source of
nutrition for both man and animals, and it
requires the smallest amount of seed of all
crops. In order to maximize the yield
of these fields, beans and squash were grown
between the rows of corn. A type of
wild “sugar cane” used for making house
brooms and corn for making popcorn were
grown around the perimeter of the fields.

The growing of corn played a major role in
the agriculture of Surtschin because the
climate and soil were so well suited.
Corn requires more heat than the other crops
and it is easily damaged by late frosts, but
it is not sensitive to what was planted on
the lot the preceding year. It was mostly
grown where wheat had been grown in the
previous year. Due to corn’s high nitrogen
requirement, the spreading of manure on the
fields was extremely rewarding.

After the harvest, the remaining stalks
would be collected and the soil was deep-plowed
later in the fall. If manure was also
spread, the plowing would not be done as
deeply so as not to keep air from reaching
the manure. This would ensure a high
quality layer of humus for the following
year. In the spring, the surface would
be harrowed, keeping the soil moist and
deterring weed growth. The selection
of kernels for seeding was done very
carefully. Only the healthiest cobs
were used and only kernels from the middle
of the cob, with the small end kernels being
discarded. Since World War I, corn was
seeded strictly by machine known as a
“Kukuruzsetzer” (“corn planter”). Very
rarely was seeding done by hand. Rows
were planted 70 cm apart and seeds spaced
every 30 to 50 cm. The seed depth was
3 to 5 cm. It would require 10-12 kg
of seed for each ‘Joch’ and planting was
from mid-April until the end of the month.

When the seeds sprouted, the field was
lightly harrowed to break the surface crust.
When the corn plants had grown large enough
so that the fourth leaves had developed, a
hoeing plow would be driven between the
rows, followed by selective hoeing by hand.
Hoeing would be repeated after two to three
weeks to remove weeds and thin out the crop.
When the corn reached knee height
(approximately 50 cm), a ridge plow would be
driven between the rows, mounding the soil
at the base of the stalks. This would
help to retain moisture and stabilize the
plants. Side shoots that developed
from any plants would be removed and used
for feed. These were a treat for the
dairy cows. The harvest would begin at
the beginning of September. The ears
were broken from the stalks and transported
to the farmyard for husking and sorting.
Healthy and ripe cobs would be stored in
cribs, while diseased and immature ones were
used immediately for animal feed.

The following spring, when the corn was
thoroughly dry, the kernels would be removed
from the cobs and sold. A large
portion would be kept by the farmer to feed
his own livestock. The leaves and
husks of the corn plant were used as winter
feed for animals and the stalks and cobs as
fuel for fire. There was a use found for
every part of the plant. The kernels
were used mainly for animal feed, but some
was also milled to produce corn meal.

Corn was sometimes grown strictly as “green
corn” for animals, usually on fields where
barley had already been harvested.
As a second crop, it supplied a good yield
of animal feed, provided there were no
droughts.

Feed
Crops

Alfalfa was a favorite feed crop in our
region because of its prolific growth,
longevity (four to six years) and its
capacity to provide three mowings per year.
Alfalfa grows deep roots and can therefore
withstand long periods of drought. It
was used primarily as green feed, but would
also be dried and stored as hay.
Alfalfa also has the capacity to fix
nitrogen from the air. This is
performed by the bacterium “Sinorhizobium
meliloti” which lives symbiotically in
nodules attached to the alfalfa roots.
This makes alfalfa essential because it not
only doesn’t deplete the soil of nitrogen,
but, in fact, increases it for subsequent
usage, resulting in high crop yields.

Red
Clover

The fields of Surtschin were seldom used for
growing red clover because it was so
sensitive to drought and not as hearty as
alfalfa. However, it had value as a
feed crop due to its high protein content. Mohar
(mohai) was also grown as a winter feed.
When it was harvested, before ripening and
drying, it made excellent winter feed for
livestock. (Translator’s note:
no reliable translation for mohar (mohai)
was obtained. It is a cultivated type of
grass).

Beets

Substantial amounts of beets were grown.
Together with ground corn, clover, wheat
bran and wheat chaff, they were a favored
so-called ‘short-feed’ for the dairy cattle.
The amount of sugar beets that were grown
became ever less, especially in the last
years prior to World War II because the
price of sugar beets had dropped to the
point where the costs of land, manure and
labor made it a poor choice of crop for the
farmer. Sugar beets were also
susceptible to weevil infestations, which
could wipe out large fields in just a few
days.

The Farmer’s Work Year

As soon as the snow had melted in the
spring, the fields would be harrowed.
This served to retain the moisture and
aerate the soil. It would also uproot
shallow weeds. If the weather
permitted, furrows for oats, barley, turnips
and sugar beets would already be plowed in
February. Towards the end of March,
the fields for corn would be deep-plowed and
harrowed a few times. Corn was planted
at the beginning of May. Many years
ago the sowing of seeds was done strictly by
hand. It was usually the women who
would walk along the furrows and sow the
kernels. One can imagine how much work
this was, given the vast fields that were
used to grow corn. It was during the
1920’s that planting was done more often by
machine. This was a tremendous saving
of time and effort for the farmer.

By the end of May, the corn had reached a
height where weeding and cultivating could
not be done by machine. Doing this by
hand was a labor-intensive job and young and
old had to participate. Weeding and
cultivating was done twice per crop, so as
soon as all the fields were done the first
time, it would be time to start the second.
The next task was to drive the plow between
the rows of corn to mound soil at the base
of the stalks. This preserved the soil
moisture and stabilized the roots.
Similarly, the beets would require weeding
and cultivating, but not mounding.

At the same time, work had to be started in
the vineyards. Virtually every farmer
grew grapes for his own use and this work
had to be fit into the busy daily schedule.

The barley harvest began already by the end
of June. This was a difficult time of
year for the farmer because of the
continuous workload. As soon as the
barley was harvested, it would be St. Peter
and St. Paul Day (June 29) and the wheat
harvest would begin. Since wheat and
corn were the two major crops in Surtschin,
the wheat harvest made large demands on
people and animals. Every family
member had to participate in this harvest.
They would set out for the fields at the
first light of day to accomplish as much as
possible before the heat of the day.
At this time of the year we had a searing
dry heat with rarely a refreshing rainstorm.
A glowing, dry heat spread over the unshaded
fields, as well as over houses and yards.
Even the night brought little cooling.
In the evenings, when the “Schnitter”
(cutters) came home from the fields
exhausted, there was still work to be done
and very little time to relax and sleep.
The wives of major farmers would not
normally work on the fields. They
would care for the livestock and the young
children and prepare a hearty lunch for the
workers, which would be placed in baskets
and driven out to the fields. During
harvest time, lunches consisted mainly of
poultry and fresh-baked yeast cake.

Some wheat was still cut with a scythe,
gathered together with a sickle and tied
into bell-shaped sheaves using homemade ties
made with rye stalks. The sheaves were
piled in a crosswise pattern in such a way
that the ears covered each other and pointed
inwards, so that the ears would remain dry
in case of rain. This arrangement also
served to complete the ripening of the
wheat.

After the wheat harvest came the turn of the
oats. Mowing machines began to be used prior
to World War I. Even a few baling
machines appeared at this time. These
machines greatly relieved humans.

Once all the fields were harvested, the
farmers would begin transporting the crops
to the farmyard, where they were set up in
high piles. Farmers with crop sizes
too large for their yards assembled their
high piles in their fields. The heavy
threshing machines moved from yard to yard
to complete this large operation. One
could hear the constant droning of the
machines from early morning until late at
night. All available hands were needed
at this time. If a farmer didn’t have
enough workers in his employ, day workers
were hired. Threshing was not done by
the hour, but from early morning until well
into the night. There were eight
threshing machines in Surtschin and most of
them were steam-powered. The owner of
the threshing machine would provide four men
to operate the machine, and the farmer who
had hired the service would have to provide
approximately twenty additional helpers.
One of the four operators was actually
running the machine, the other three were
responsible for feeding the sheaves into the
thresher. This was a very strenuous
job, so these men worked in shifts.
Two or three strong young men would throw
the sheaves onto the threshing machine with
pitch forks, where two girls would receive
them and cut the ties binding the sheaves,
then pass them on the man feeding them into
the machine. Four or five men would be
assigned to hand the empty sacks to the
thresher, to collect them when they were
full, weigh them, carry them to the granary
and empty them there. The owner of the
threshing machine controlled the weighing,
as his payment was based on it. For
example, payment for the use of a
steam-powered machine was six to seven
percent of the yield. For a
gasoline-powered machine, the payment was
eight to nine percent.

Three women or girls were assigned to rake
the chaff from under the threshing machine
and move it to a storage room. The
straw was lifted by an inclined conveyer
belt (called “Elevator”) to an empty space,
where four or five men would portion it and
stack it in a large pile.

Day workers received forty to fifty
kilograms of wheat and free meals for a
day’s work. Help from the neighborhood
was very important. Neighbors, friends and
relatives were there to help, even though it
was hard and dusty work. There were
actually very few farmers who needed to hire
day workers for this job. There was
always particularly good food prepared on
threshing days. There would usually be
soup, roasted goose and poppy seed or sour
cherry strudel. The farmer’s younger
children (10- to 12-year olds) and the
neighbors’ children also helped by bringing
water, wine and mulberry schnapps to the
workers, since it was very hot and dusty.
There were no work stoppages for vespers on
threshing days. The day before his turn for
threshing arrived, the farmer had to prepare
barrels of water for the steam engine and
for fire protection. It was the farmer’s
responsibility to ensure that enough water
was always available during threshing. The
steam engine used straw for combustion, and
it was the farmer’s responsibility to
provide it.

After the threshing was completed, the
farmer’s wife returned to her unfinished
chores in house, yard and garden. When
she had some free time, it was often spent
spinning wool, while sitting with the other
women outside by the road in the shade of
the mulberry trees. The men and sons plowed
the fields cleared by the harvest.

Then came the job of harvesting grapes for
wine making. Virtually every farmer
grew grapes for his own use.

The corn harvest began at the end of
September and there were no machines to
assist with this. If the fall weather
was beautiful and dry, the ears could be
removed from the stalks and husked in the
fields. All that remained to be done
at home was sorting and storing the corn in
the ‘Hambar’ for drying. If the
weather was wet or the harvest had to be
completed in a hurry, the corn would be
husked after harvesting. Family and
neighbors would spend the entire evening in
the shed husking corn until ten or half past
ten. This corn husking was a
much-loved occasion for young and old,
because everybody had lots of fun, with the
boys and girls singing folk songs. In
the early mornings, while dew still clung to
the corn stalks, they were cut with a
sickle, bound into bundles and stacked in
rows to dry. When all the autumn work
was done, the bundles would be brought home
and used as feed for the livestock.
The uneaten dense cores of the stalks were
saved as fuel for fire.

During the corn harvest, only cold lunches
were prepared, followed by a warm, hearty
meal in the evening. When all the
fields had been harvested, they would be
plowed immediately and the wheat fields
would be seeded. Every farmer in
Surtschin tried to make sure that all his
autumn seeding was done by the second Sunday
in November, the day of the Kirchweih
festivity in Surtschin. If the weather
permitted, the fields were prepared for
spring seeding by spreading manure on
them, followed by deep plowing, so that the
soil would freeze well and be loose in the
spring.

Then came the time in which our farmers
enjoyed some rest. Preparations were
made for the annual rendering of pigs, which
concluded in the evening with the “Metzelsuppe”,
a feast at which soup, sausages, and other
products made from freshly-slaughtered meat
were usually served.